📗 Libro en inglés THE FORBIDDEN GARDEN OF LENINGRAD

From the winner of the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize comes a fascinating and moving untold story of the Leningrad scientists who risked everything for the future of humanity An astonishing story brilliantly told It is as moving as it is gripping to read Jonathan Dimbleby author of Endgame 1944 A gripping original and important story of courage and science in wartime Roland Philipps author of A Spy Named Orphan In the summer of 1941 German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad now St Petersburg and began the longest blockade in recorded history By the most conservative estimates the siege would claim the lives of three quarters of a million people Most died of starvation At the centre of the embattled city stood a converted palace that housed the greatest living plant library ever amassed the world s first seed bank After attempts to evacuate the collection failed and as supplies dwindled the scientists responsible faced a terrible decision should they distribute the specimens to the starving population or preserve them in the hope that they held the key to ending global famine Drawing on previously unseen sources The Forbidden Garden tells the remarkable and moving story of the botanists who remained at the Plant Institute during t